The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for stacking printed products or the like continuously arriving upon conveyor means or a conveyor track, especially products arriving or delivered in an imbricated or fish-scale product formation.
It is to be understood that in the context of this disclosure the term "fish-scale" formation or arrangement or equivalent terminology, as employed in conjunction with the handled articles, typically printed products, is intended to mean an arrangement of normally flat structures which are disposed in an overlapping spread stacked formation, in other words, in the manner of a fanned deck of cards. Also the term "printed products" is used in its broader sense as relating to various types of structures capable of being handled by the stacking apparatus of the invention, there being specifically mentioned, by way of example and not limitation, newspapers, periodicals, magazines and so forth.
Continuing, it is to be mentioned that the product stacks delivered by prior art stacking apparatuses of the aforementioned general type are relatively unstable structures which, in the event the formed stack is to be further transported, must be handled with extreme care or, however, must be held together with the aid of additional means.
One example of such additional means is conventionally employed tying or binding material. Apart from the fact that a processing or handling technique relying upon a tying operation requires an additional working step which must be carried out upon an additional piece of equipment or apparatus, the tying operation itself is associated with the danger that the edges of the uppermost and lowermost printed products of the stack might become damaged, and furthermore, there should not be overlooked the additional danger of permanent deformation of the products or articles constituting the stack.
Hence, it has therefore already been proposed in this particular field of technology to stack the printed products or articles in a type of stacking cartridge or container. These cartridges or containers can be compared to stacking chutes which can be exchangeably or detachably connected to the apparatus and at the same time serve as a transparent device for the product stack confined therein.
Admittedly the handling of a stack is simplified and the danger of damaging individual copies of the stack is equally diminished or eliminated to a certain extent if the products are stacked in cartridges or containers. But it must be appreciated that such cartridges or containers require a comparatively large amount of space, irrespective of whether they are filled or empty. Moreover, with the stacking of printed products in cartridges or containers as above mentioned, difficulties can arise in the sense that the printed products only can be again removed from the cartridges or containers in a certain sequence. For instance, it is not possible to subdivide the stack into packs or various groups within the cartridge or the like, for instance by removing or displacing a printed product serving to mark or indicate the end of such a pack or group. Additionally, the individual printed products within a cartridge or a container right from the start are not correlated with a clearly defined space or place, so that if the cartridge or container is incompletely filled, such hardly, but in any event only to an unsufficient degree, can fulfill its actual function as additional holding means.